Gov. Ron DeSantis has invited Capt. Daniel Andrews to his first State of the State address Tuesday.

The speech, which kicks off the legislative session, is traditionally delivered by the governor to a joint session of Florida’s house and senate detailing his priorities and plans. The invitation was announced at 9 p.m. on Monday.

Daniel Andrews, founder of Captains for Clean Water.(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

So far, the environment has been front and center for DeSantis, starting with a sweeping executive order calling for $2.5 billion for Everglades restoration and water protection, a blue-green algae task force, a chief science officer position, and an office of resilience and coastal protection to fund and coordinate response to rising sea levels.

This is good news for Southwest Floridians like Andrews, who lived through a nightmarish stretch red tide and toxic cyanobacteria that devastated the area's wildlife and economy. Until recently, Andrews' livelihood was leading fishing charters; he now spends his time fighting for the region's environmental health with the nonprofit Captains for Clean Water, which he helped found.

Andrews was with DeSantis on his second day in office, when he traveled to FGCU's Vester Field Station in Bonita Springs to announce the order.

"We’re happy with the initiatives the governor outlined in his executive order relating to water quality," Andrews said, "and we need our representatives to help us fight for funding."

Another concept Andrews hopes the governor and lawmakers take to heart: "No deep injection wells," he said. Such wells have been proposed as a place to put polluted Lake Okeechobee water instead of sending it down the Caloosahatchee to the Gulf of Mexico, but Andrews and others, including the Everglades Foundation, believe that's a terrible idea and hope to propose other solutions.

DeSantis also invited Michael Crosby, president and CEO of Mote Marine in Sarasota, to attend the address.